All the tabloid rumors were true! Miranda Lambert has been super pregnant with a bunch of new tour dates, giving sweet birth to them recently, and they’re all girls. After teasing some big announcement was coming soon with a buzzing sign posted on Instagram that had people speculating about everything from new music, to a new member of the Lambert family with her recently-acquired husband, Miranda announced 26 tour dates for 2019 starting in September, and dusted off an old tour name in the form of the Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars Tour to group them under.

This tour will be an all female affair, with Miranda Lambert’s supergroup with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, a.k.a. The Pistol Annies opening up select tour dates, along with Elle King, Caylee Hammack, Tenille Townes, Maren Morris, and Ashley McBryde. Each date will feature three openers, with a revolving cast for each stop (see full lineups below). Sorry, no Turnpike Troubadours dates this run.

“I’m so excited and honored to be on tour with some of my favorite artists, who each inspire me in a different way,” says Lambert. “Maren Morris is a fiery fellow Texas girl that isn’t afraid to take a risk and be who she is. Elle King is a brave, confident and unapologetic artist who is honest about her life and uses it for her art. My fellow Pistol Annies are not only some of my best friends and writing partners, but also make me want to be a better artist every time we take the stage together. Tenille, Ashley and Caylee are all women who have something to say and they do it their own way. They are the next generation of fearless female artists and I’m so thrilled to share a stage with them.”

The dates come as Miranda Lambert is gearing up for a big ACM Awards presentation on Sunday (4-7). Miranda is said to be performing a medley of her big hits over the years, as well as a duet with “King” George Strait, which should make for a pretty fetching performance. Miranda Lambert is past due for new music too, with no positive sign just yet that a new record may be on the way. Her last album The Weight of These Wings was a twin record released back in 2016.

37 Comments

SameOld
April 6, 2019 @
8:11 am

It’s been interesting to see the Miranda fans who’ve been trashing Maren’s non country music and in this past week her appearance like a bunch of mean girls, suddenly having to rally around and praise her inclusion in the tour.

Miranda fans have been especially vocal against Maren Morris, as have a lot of Carrie Underwood fans, because they see their favorite artists getting edged out by a pure pop artist. That said, I think that Miranda sees the importance of helping the next generation get a foot up as others did for her, and I’m not going to fault her for bringing Maren or whomever else with her on tour. Would have been cool if she had dug a little deeper though, and maybe picked up someone like Sarah Shook or Jamie Lin Wilson, just like she did with the Turnpike Troubadours and The Steel Woods. These openers are still mostly a mainstream affair.

They share a lot of casual fans but come award season the claws come out amongst the hardcore fans. Ranfans and Care bears have been fighting each other for years. Ranfans who are probably the most toxic fan group in country music have new targets in Maren and Kacey. Miranda’s favorite fan account she supports on twitter and Instagram just went on a vile personal attack on Maren right before the tour was announced. That’s not fantasy. You know the account.

Yo, for real, though… I love Miranda Lambert so much it hurts, but her fanbase is pretty weird, especially to like, Gwen and Blake and all those people. So silly. I don’t give a flying fuck about people’s personal lives, or awards or whatever… but yeah, i noticed that, especially on twitter. The weird extreme stans are a loud minority.

I can kinda understand why her fans go after Blake and Gwen because that was Miranda’s intention with the fake tears at the CMAs and she kept it going with stunts like posing with fans holding signs trashing them at her shows. There’s also a level of jealousy because she turned into a trainwreck and they’re still going.

What I don’t get, her fans being all girl power and women should build up other women but as soon as a woman appears to be competition they turn around and trash them. Happened to Carrie, Maren, Kacey, Kelsea… How do they not see that one woman’s success is good for all women? Just because Kacey and Maren are doing well doesn’t mean Miranda ceases to exist. It’s just stupid and gross.

Regarding this conflict between Miranda’s and Carrie’s fans on the one hand, and Maren Morris herself on the other, is it possible that at least some of those fans are in fact not merely “fans” in the typical sense of the term, but what Eminem would call “Stans”–borderline fanatics? I’m not an advocate for Maren, for reasons I’ve discussed elsewhere, but it does seem like some of Miranda’s and Carrie’s fans are not as secure about their favorites as they make themselves out to be because of Maren being an “upstart”, even if her country music credibility is, to say the least, kind of questionable.

Of course they’re Stans. The Stan culture affects everything in popular music now. They’re embedded throughout music media even. You can’t just laugh off these elements as “just Stans.” Stan armies now wield incredible power in the music marketplace and on social media. 1 Stan = 10 fans, if not more, and they’re opinions and actions sway music arguably more than anything else. They are a force of nature, for better or worse.

…and one of the things I had posited is that a number of these Stans, by engaging in Internet attacks on other artists, were not as secure about their favorites as they wanted to try to make themselves out to be. At that time, the focus was on the Stans of the Bros (FGL; Aldean; etc.) who felt the need to attack others to defend their favorites and, in my opinion, revealed themselves to be rather insecure people. I would have hoped that Carrie’s and/or Miranda’s fans wouldn’t have gone down that path, regardless of what Maren might represent to their Faves.

Ashley has been jumping on a lot of opening slots and festivals. I know that is huge for her, but I was hoping to catch her solo in a more intimate venue. She has not really come anywhere in the Central Texas area.

This is a deeper topic, and I am working on an article about this very thing, but your comment illustrates a very important dynamic to this whole “Women in country music” story, which is that setting up these all-women tours and events isn’t helping to support them, it is segregating them in the live music space, and robbing of them of opportunities to find new fans. I’m not criticizing Miranda or anyone else for taking this all-woman approach. But I think an honest, open discussion about the efficacy of this approach is warranted.

You know Trig I’d be more inclined to go if she brought a “mix” of diverse female artists instead of the “usual suspects”. Most female’s get stuck as “3rd or even 4th” on the tour bill under Urban/Bryan/Aldean and__________. Let’s face it Lambert & Underwood are pretty much the only current big female headliners so they think their audiences at least like women so we’ll get some to open for us etc….These younger women can never even get near that point with no airplay no matter who they tour with, what fest they play or what incredible album they put out. Most of the 9 women opening for Miranda here will just be lost in the daylong shuffle of 50 minute sets. Opening for the big boys as people are finding their seats in an outdoor shed isn’t going to help em either. I love that Cody still takes Sunny out with him though. Like Sunny says “do you have a better bad idea?”….LOL

I would go to this if there was a show coming closer to me but I also have purchased all my summer trips and tours tickets and am tapped out on fun money expenses. I can appreciate what Miranda is doing with this tour though and I think it can help some of those less than main stream artist. Hope she continues to build on this type of thing in the future and can bring in other similar or less known artist like Nikki Lane or Lindi Ortega.

Great line up, wish it was coming to Pittsburgh but Columbus might have to do.

Saw her last year on the Bandwagon Tour with Little Big Town. It was probably the best and worst set I’ve ever seen an artist do. It was Tourpike Troubadors, Little Big Town, then Miranda Lambert. Miranda came out and absolutely killed it, she was phenomenal Then about 2/3rds of the way through her set she brought LBT out. I figured it was just for one or two songs, but then they stayed and stayed, and ended up closing out the show with her. It was a huge letdown to see her close out with those clowns after such a strong 1st hour.

In 2015, the audience was VERY female and mostly looked like moms and young daughters (I took my young daughter as a mama/daughter date night).

It’s true that these all female/small venue tours don’t do a lot to expose these female artists to the masses…but it DOES expose a lot of young girls to female artists they otherwise wouldn’t have discovered. In 2015, my daughter had never heard of Ashley Monroe or Patty Loveless…after seeing them live she became a huge fan of both. Hopefully this time, she will react the same way to Ashley McBryde.

So, these shows matter, on a small scale but they DO matter. I admire Lambert for choosing this path when she could just do another co-headliner tour with another popular mainstream act and play in huge stadiums.

important observation , CCB . i have long held that women are writing/co-writing some of the best songs right now . Tenille Townes ( ok some Canadian bias here ) is a terrific young writer /performer ….Ashley mcBryde , ….not on the tour but Courtney Andrews , Emily Robinson , Lissie , Pink , Jade Kelly …..too many to name …..ALL inspiring songwriters …INSPIRING ! as you say , we should be appreciative they are getting some spotlight time …not just to inspire young female writers but to wake up the male writers .

Everytime Miranda is on any thread, it is a
guarantee you. Corncaster, have some skank like comment about her. Seems personal and visceral and vicious every time. Country music history is full of women and men who have made mistakes and great music and have not been eviscerated, mostly due to social media and corrupt and rabid media. Why do damn nasty? She is country. And she is human. Hateful just to be hateful is not a good look.

Whats so great about these tours and the music….We can go buy tickets or not buy tickets, buy the artist music or not buy the artist music. The other Great thing is Carrie Underwood or Miranda Lambert have made their millions, they can go out on tour or stay home. Carrie has her family, Miranda will no doubt have one one day. .As far as saying Miranda needs these other artist as much as they need her…I just don’t see it, believe me their labels would have them on their own making more of that green back dollar. These artist have my backing but they haven’t made it to Miranda’s height yet or Carrie’s. Lets just hope they get there one day, bring us some great country music. Maybe they’ll ask Miranda to open for them. I would say knowing Miranda if thats what she wants, thats what she will do.Until then thanks for taking these new artist out, Miranda. You girls have enough fun for those that sit home, cheer you on or those being critical of you!!!!!